{"id":41163,"date":"2026-08-12T16:20:39","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41163"},"modified":"2026-08-12T16:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T11:20:39","slug":"ukraines-nighttime-blitz-damages-russian-black-sea-naval-stronghold-zelensky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=41163","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine&#8217;s nighttime blitz damages Russian Black Sea naval stronghold: Zelensky"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fnewspress-collage-zyo6ghunm-1786527787277.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall%261786513408\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Ukrainian anti-ship missiles, jet-powered aerial drones and sea drones blitzed a major <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/11\/world-news\/ukraine-strikes-leave-putins-1-5b-black-sea-palace-unprotected-report\/\">Russian naval base on the Black Sea<\/a> coast in a \u201cunique\u201d nighttime operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Cutting-edge drones\u00a0developed by Kyiv since\u00a0Russia invaded\u00a0more than four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and\u00a0oil tankers. Both countries have <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/11\/world-news\/zelensky-mocks-russia-for-reliance-on-north-korean-missiles\/\">Black Sea shorelines.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ukraine\u2019s\u00a0uncrewed fleet\u00a0has succeeded in limiting the movements of Russia\u2019s once-dominant Black Sea navy, Kyiv officials say, in one of the country\u2019s biggest accomplishments of the war.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Ukraine blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in a \u201cunique\u201d nighttime operation. <span class=\"credit\">Volodomyr Zelensky\/X<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>But Ukrainian officials reckon that Russian President Vladimir Putin is bent on prosecuting the war, despite his bigger army\u2019s slow and costly progress on the battlefield and US diplomatic efforts to find a settlement.<\/p>\n<p>Putin is planning \u201can additional rapid mobilization of <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/09\/world-news\/russia-ukraine-kill-7-after-overnight-strikes\/\">several hundred thousand Russians<\/a> by the end of the year,\u201d Zelensky said on social media late Tuesday, citing Ukrainian intelligence reports.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Ukraine says it hit Black Sea port infrastructure<\/h2>\n<p>The Ukrainian military \u201ccarried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk \u2014 the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,\u201d Zelensky said in a social media post Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure in the Krasnodar region city, he added.<\/p>\n<p>Krasnodar region Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that hundreds of Ukrainian drones attacked Novorossiysk, Anapa and Gelendzhik and the Temryuk district of the region overnight.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The Ukrainian military \u201ccarried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk \u2014 the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea,\u201d Zelensky said. <span class=\"credit\">Volodomyr Zelensky\/X<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>The attack struck air defenses, piers and other port infrastructure in the Krasnodar region city, Zelensky said. <span class=\"credit\">Volodomyr Zelensky\/X<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Russian air defenses downed more than 500 Ukrainian drones, the Defense Ministry in Moscow said.<\/p>\n<p>In Novorossiysk, an eight-year old child was killed in the attack, and a person wounded when his house in the Temryuk region was hit later died in hospital, Kondratyev said. He added that 12 other people in the region were wounded.<\/p>\n<p>Debris from downed drones fell on the territory of four industrial plants and 21 residential buildings, according to Kondratyev, but officials gave no details of any damage.<\/p>\n<p>Novorossiysk is also home to a key international oil terminal.<\/p>\n<p>The Grushovaya oil transshipment complex near Novorossiysk is one of the largest transshipment hubs in southern Russia for oil and petroleum products.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-x wp-block-embed-x\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"embed-wrapper twitter\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Last night, Ukraine\u2019s Defense Forces carried out a unique operation targeting the naval base in Novorossiysk \u2013 the last major stronghold of the Russian fleet in the Black Sea, more than 300 kilometers from the front line.<\/p>\n<p>Our Palianytsia jet-powered drones, Neptune missiles, and\u2026 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kVg9DDBasN\">pic.twitter.com\/kVg9DDBasN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Volodymyr Zelenskyy \/ \u0412\u043e\u043b\u043e\u0434\u0438\u043c\u0438\u0440 \u0417\u0435\u043b\u0435\u043d\u0441\u044c\u043a\u0438\u0439 (@ZelenskyyUa) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ZelenskyyUa\/status\/2087450109210464760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 12, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Last February, the US State Department\u00a0expressed its displeasure\u00a0about Ukraine\u2019s attacks on Novorossiysk, saying they have impacted US oil interests in \u2060Kazakhstan.<\/p>\n<p>The Caspian Pipeline Consortium operates a pipeline from the Caspian coast in northwest Kazakhstan to Novorossiysk.<\/p>\n<p>The pipeline handles much of the crude exports from three major Kazakh fields in which major US energy companies, Chevron and ExxonMobil, have stakes.<\/p>\n<p>In illegally annexed Crimea, air defenses downed 115 Ukrainian drones over Sevastopol overnight, the city\u2019s Russia-appointed head Mikhail Razvozhayev said, adding that 10 apartment buildings and 25 private houses were damaged.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Russian drone attacks kill 2 and destroy a shopping mall<\/h2>\n<p>Meanwhile, Ukraine\u2019s air force said Wednesday that Russia fired 138 long-range strike drones as well as an unspecified number of missiles at Ukraine during the night.<\/p>\n<p>Damage was recorded at 16 locations across the country, it said.<\/p>\n<p>In the southern Kherson region of Ukraine, a large-scale Russian drone attack overnight killed two people and wounded two others, regional head Oleksandr Prokudin said Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The attacks also destroyed a shopping mall in the southern Ukraine city of Zaporizhzhia, according to authorities.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ukrainian anti-ship missiles, jet-powered aerial drones and sea drones blitzed a major Russian naval base on the Black Sea coast in a \u201cunique\u201d nighttime operation, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday. Cutting-edge drones\u00a0developed by Kyiv since\u00a0Russia invaded\u00a0more than four years ago have repeatedly targeted Russian ships in the Black Sea, including warships and\u00a0oil tankers. Both&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":41164,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/newspress-collage-zyo6ghunm-1786527787277.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&1786513408&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41163"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41163\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}